Cassandra: Florence Nightingale's Angry Outcry Against the Forced Idleness of Victorian Women

by Florence Nightingale, Myra Stank (Introduction), Cynthia Macdonald (Epilogue)

The world knows Florence Nightingale as "the lady with the lamp"—the revered founder of nursing as a respectable profession for women. But few people are aware that Nightingale's career began only after years of struggle to free herself from her suffocating Victorian family. In this surprisingly passionate feminist essay (a "brilliant polemic," states Martha Vicinus), Nightingale denounces the lives of idleness she and other women of her class were forced to lead.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Classics, Essays, Womens, School

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1852

About the author

Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC was an English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence during the Crimean War for her pioneering work in nursing, and was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night to tend injured soldiers. Nightingale laid the foundation stone of professional nursing with the principles summarised in the book Notes on Nursing. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this for my final seminar paper in Victorian Literature. The tone is commanding as well as straightforward. She gets to the heart of the matter in a hurry. During a time when women were subjugated, and expected to fulfill the domestic duties of the household, this essay challenges the androcentric culture of the Victorians. I do not completely agree with her thoughts on how woman compare to men, but she holds herself as an equal to men yet is disappointed with how quickly women submit to men. In my opinion, it is one of the most powerful feminist essays of the time.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me by surprise. Many associations between Florence Nightengale and nursing come up, but rarely is she spoke of as an activist. This woman had the heart of lion, stuck in Victorian dress. Anyone who associates with woman's rights would enjoy this text. Also if you are in the field of nursing, her ideas are exceptional. I did not enjoy the angry tone of the book, nor did I agree with all her ideas, but I'm glad I read it.

[Mela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A glimpse into Florence Nightingale's views about women. I don't agree with many of them, nonetheless, Nightingale was one of the first to throw a brick against the 'anti-sex-equality-wall', and it is good to remember how slow the process was, and how many people had to act before we get where we are now.

And I definitely recommend reading first an introduction by Myra Stark.

[Cassandra Lashae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since it's my namesake, I'm probably biased by wishing this had become an actual novel. I loved the essay, so relevant for feminism today, and an important study of human character in general.

[Flo]

In 'A Room of One's Own', Virginia Woolf says that Florence Nightingale 'shrieked aloud in agony', in reference to 'Cassandra'.

I would certainly agree. I found this to be a very moving read; Nightingale's anger and pain at the constraints of her time are palpable and raw, and it takes several generations after its writing to see women's writing of this kind have any significant recognition. Her attitude towards the women in her life, crushed by patriarchal constraints, is harsh (perhaps unfairly so), formed by years of bitter anger and a failure to feel seen in the women around her or to find any kind of resistance movement among them. The most poignant image for me was her imagining a woman who rejoices at her own funeral, 'Welcome, beautiful death!', who is so glad to die because she has already suffered an internal death in the form of undeveloped gifts and unrealised ambitions. Nightingale feels so much misery looking at the society around her.

Her ideas clearly influenced 'A Room of One's Own' in acknowledging how the lack of time women have for themselves has stopped them from following any dream, or developing any talent, so it is sad to see this text receive almost no attention.

[Evan Doi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I support women’s rights but more importantly I support women’s wrongs (Nightingale’s take of “if I could pull myself out of society’s chokehold why can’t you?”)

A girlboss for sure. Loved her writing and reasoning, even if I don’t agree with all of it.

[Bailey Updegraff · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Christ, if he had been a woman, might have been nothing but a great complainer.”

I’m gobsmacked. I loved this so much

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a progressive and forward thinking text for its time, dealing with pervasive issues like gender equality and eschewing domesticity. It was just difficult to juxtapose the voice, which was dealing with middle class biases, and the issues at hand, which were all about women who weren't taken seriously. It's a slightly narrow view of the fight that all women were waging at the time.

[Michelle Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I long for the day I can mark a book as read that wasn't for my history class

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for university paper.

[Sarah Coller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh... I don't know... Half the time I agreed with her and half the time I was rolling my eyes.

Nightingale comes across as a super angry person and I wouldn't necessarily call her a traditional Feminist. She was irritated at the "forced" idleness of the women of her time, yet her whole life played out as a woman who didn't want to be idle so she got up and did stuff. Sounds like a choice to me. She rails against female colleagues who left nursing to get married and raise a family. Sounds like a choice to me.

For the umpteenth time (actually we're into umphundreds by now) I see another story of women whining about being oppressed by men but the examples they give actually go back to them being oppressed by other women. Nightingale's angry outcry probably stirred up a lot of women and once they were stirred up, there was no stopping them. But the thing is, there never actually really ever was anything stopping them. They just had to decide it was important enough to require the change. It's not like they disposed of all the men around so they could have their way. They always had the power to require change. They just finally chose to push until it happened.

Cue the angry Feminists in my comments but really, the hurdle wasn't men locking them up and throwing away the key --- the hurdle was facing the judgmental attitudes and actions of their fellow women.

[Prooost Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a complex woman Florence Nightingale was. In her essay Cassandra, she rails against the strictures of the lives of upper and middle class women. Yet she hesitated for a long time to join the suffrage movement. Her contradictions are well explained in Myra Stark's introduction to this volume.

Victorian England was a country in the grip of an ideology that worshiped the woman in the home. Women were viewed as wives and mothers, as potential wives and mothers, or as failed wives and mothers. The woman who was neither wife nor mother was called "the odd woman" or "the redundant Woman."

Florence Nightingale was possessed of a will to work, and to do something heroic. Her mother and sister fought her every inch of the way. Not until she was thirty-two, and her father gave her an income of 500 Pounds a year, was she able to escape.

Her work as a nurse in Crimea is well known, but when she returned from that war, she showed her real genius for organization, throwing herself into the cause of introducing modern sanitary practices in hospitals, and in inventing nursing as a profession.

Nightingale's writing, unfortunately, is difficult to penetrate, and I would have given the essay itself only three stars: Five for content, and two for readability. The extra star is for the context given by Myra Stark's introduction.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

En fantastisk kilde til at forstå kvindens rolle i victoriatiden og de forventninger, der var til hende. Essayet er skrevet af en ung og meget frustreret Florence Nightingale, før hun brød med familien og begyndte sin uddannelse som sygeplejerske i Tyskland. Bogen indledes af et rigtigt godt forord, som sætter essayet i et historisk perspektiv.
Florence Nightingale var jo ikke "bare" kvinden, der senere grundlagde sygepleje som en respektabel profession for kvinder. Hun var en enormt interessant person, som jeg helt klart må læse mere om.

[Cassandra]

This essay was in the textbook for my British lit class last semester in “the woman question” section and of course the name caught my attention but I didn’t get a chance to read it so when it was referenced in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own it reminded me to pick it up. It’s very short but interesting in the verbalized frustrations of being a woman in the 19th century. A Room of One’s Own echos these sentiments and is honestly a lot better but still this is an interesting look at a Victorian woman’s thoughts on the oppression her sex faced.

[Julie Chandler · Rating 1 out of 5]

A slim volume written by Florence Nightingale as a young woman. It’s an outpouring of her thoughts on her life and a bit of a rant against conforming to the expectations of a conventional, and in he view, useless / wasted life. As a Nightingale scholar and aficionado, it was interesting to read but otherwise it’s pretty dry and hard going.

[Tonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florence Nightingale's Cassandra is an amazing feminist text that demonstrates an intelligent woman discontent with what limit society offers her. Nightingale is well-known for her nursing work, however, she strikes a cord as a writer, using this as her outlet for frustration.

[E.M. Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seminal work on feminist theory

[Ana Hein · Rating 3 out of 5]

18th century lean in

[Jade F]

Read for class lol

[rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay sure

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

💣💥

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid 3.5

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Florence Nightingale has been praised for all the great work she did and contributions to nursing. Cassandra reveals her feelings of the treatment of Victorian women at that time and the impetus for her achievements. It was because she was rebelling against mom and sister that she went abroad to do what she did.

[Nikita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great pamphlet on the condition of upperclass Victorian women. It shows a lot of first wave feminist arguments. If you liked this though you should also read something by working women of the time. A great short poem called "The Lacemakers" is great for this. Reading this and the poem will really give you a better all round idea of the condition of women during the Victorian Era.

[Frankie Paradise]

I read this for Victorian lit, but it is a pretty interesting argument for women's rights. Until reading this, I had no idea that Florence Nightingale was anything more than a nurse/healthcare activist honestly.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a feminist pamphlet written by the famous Florence Nightingale. Honestly, it did not interest me very much.

[Cate Neuhauser · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good story, and it is a great read for feminist studies

[Bobby Hougen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5